My last weekend was typical of my Kuwait weekends: I overslept, I overate, I over-indulged in an unproductive inactivity.

I did some readings, though. And yes, I did watch some tv programs, too.

Twenty superfruits
Mangoes and guava included. I wonder why banana isn't?

Living Together, Aging Together
"It would be great to grow old with a cluster of friends, we told each other, in a place only a few steps from movies and shops, the YMCA and the bus into Manhattan", or in my case, a few steps away from the beach.

Aging's Misunderstood Virtues
"An increased need for solitude and for the company of only a few intimates". So me.

From watching Criminal Minds.

"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world, remains and is immortal."


Quite honestly, I look forward to my next weekend. Ganyan ako ka-tamad ngayon.

An article has taken me.

"...until the taste of innocent children’s blood is removed from my favorite Cadbury’s Hazelnut chocolate bar and other chocolate candies that I enjoyed before, I will no longer have any."

From PDI article about how kids working in cocoa plantations in Africa are "paid nothing, fed cheap food, beaten up regularly, forced to work 60 to 100 hours a week...and kept under lock at night". So much like some of our kabayans working as househelp in the Middle East.

So unprotected.

Quoted this:

“I don’t understand their parents...(t)hey are working as maids in Italy and they hire maids here to take care of their own children. They value their money more than their families.”

From NYT article about how "absence makes the homes grow grander".

It hurts. Burning.
The acid on my face. The shame.
The knife wounds. The blame.
I painted my dream in color;
t'was shortlived...four months.
Painful. Hellish. A nightmare.

At least, I now rest,
suffering no more;
without aches and burns,
and weepings and sleepless fears.
For people like me,
death is a sweet embrace.

My story will be told,
between sobs and bottled anger.
My family's hurt will last long.
My name repeated countless times,
with prayers and remembrances
and then...

I'll be forgotten,
just like the others.
Until someone suffers
a similar fate:
Left for Saudi with a bag;
Leave Saudi in a bag.

You with ears, listen.
You with a heart, listen more.

Blogger alone lists 18,700 blogs from Kuwait, but so far I've only met a handful of Filipinos maintaining a Kuwait-based blog.

In alphabetical order:

Chronicles of a Desert Prince is Jay's blog which contains photos of Kuwait's people and places. Observably though, he has stopped blogging since April 2010 and his last post was this picturesque photo of a sunset in Marinduque. I hope he continues blogging because his photographs are more than a thousand word.



Incessant Mack's Nag is Macky's blog which contains news and happenings on and about Kuwait. Informative.



Ever's Pamatay Homesick is, of course, Ever's PEBA 2008's award-winning blog. Ever is an architect by day and artist by night (and I suppose during weekends, too). He paints and he sculps, and he writes for POC. He belongs to Adhika, a Filipino artists's group, based in Kuwait.



I found Ponyok's site from expat-blog. His writing style is light and engaging and his posts are truly informative (and at times wacky...read this piece on two barbers).



Tabuena Art Central and Tabuena Inspire are owned by Enrique Tabuena, a "Creative Director, Graphic Designer, Art Director, Illustrator, Visual Artist, Driver". Both sites contain various original art pieces created by the author. His artworks are inspiring and magnificent.



Tukmol's website contains "my everyday ignorance, rants, angst, inspirations, humor and thoughts about almost everything under the sun".

A PDI article reads: "Malacanang cut more than the legal assistance fund of distressed overseas Filipino workers, it also slashed by almost half this year’s foreign affairs’ P200-million budget for overall assistance to OFWs down to P109.3 million next year."

Huwag, boss!

A further reading of Susan Ople's site states: The DFA budget has been cut by more than 40 percent. In 2010, its budget was P19 billion. Next year, the DFA and its foreign posts would have to make do with P10.98 billion.

Maybe there's a good reason why you cut the DFA's budget. Maybe you're putting the money elsewhere where it will benefit more Filipinos. But Boss, try to look at this photo.


Photo sourced from New York Times.

They're Pinays in Kuwait Embassy, packed like sardines, who ran away from their 'amo' due to abuse. Some have been repatriated to the Philippines last week; there are more still waiting to get home.

Can you ensure that the cut in DFA's budget will not affect them (and those others who fall prey to abusive employers abroad, and whose only chance of being saved is through the assistance of our government)? If you can (and I know you can), cut the huge salaries and unnecessary benefits of those working in Philippine embassies around the world (I heard they're mighty excessive).  Boss, huwag po yung para sa OFWs!

Below is the Official Statement of the Pinoy Expats/OFW Blog Awards (PEBA) on the proposed cuts on DFA Legal Assistance Fund

"We stand as an alliance of Filipino Expats and OFWs whose primary advocacy is to promote the welfare and safeguard the rights of our fellow Filipino workers abroad through blogs. We would like to call for the President Benigno S Aquino and the members of the Philippine Congress to reconsider the proposed cut on the Legal Assistance Fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ budget.

This act is dangerous to the already deplorable conditions of many OFWs who are incarcerated in various countries needing legal assistance. The legal complexities of those who have been abused, ill-treated and became victims of unfair labor practice are costly and (it is) a lengthy fight.

The proposed cut would undermine the ability of our Consulate Offices to file legal actions that would protect thousands of Filipinos abroad working for their families to survive the poverty-stricken living condition of our fellow “kababayans” in the Philippines.

How unfortunate that this is what we get for being the “modern day heroes.” No country would treat their heroes this way; it is insane to reduce legal assistance fund to a meager 27 million a year. The lack of funds as a reason for letting piteous Pinoy OFWs die in other countries brought by inability to legally defend their case would be tragic, senseless and an insensitive display of our government’s agenda on OFWs and other migrant workers.

Please, please! We seek for your forthright defense of our already underprivileged sector whose only intention is to let their families live a good life, send their children or siblings to school, save the Philippine economy and let our nation become great again. As Filipino Expatriates and OFWs, we provide our nation with new hope, we let the world see our eminence in various fields, we make each of us proud to become Filipino and yet, the government has been less and less appreciative of our contribution by decreasing our means to be protected from legal scuffles.

As united bloggers in different parts of the world, we will continue to knock, beat our drums and reach every home with Internet to let the world know that this is not fair, that this is an injustice to our welfare and would send our many fellow Filipinos working abroad into the mud of legal demise.

We hope that this plead will not fall on deaf ears, we are in a new era of governance, our new administration have relentlessly brandished renewal as their guiding thrust, prove to us that you care for the OFWs by scrapping the proposed cut from DFA’s Legal Assistance Fund.

Pinoy Expats OFW Blog Awards (PEBA)
PEBA-OFW Alliance Action Group
http://www.pinoyblogawards.com/

Kablogs (Gateway of OFW Bloggers)
http://www.ofwkablogs.com/

The gilded mirror.



My room, or a part of it, viewed from the gilded mirror.



These Zen-inspired shells on top of my bed's headboard.



And outside, a view that I see every morning, everyday.

I couldn't ask for anything better.

Today, September 8, the whole of the Christindom celebrate the birth of Mother Mary.

Today, I attended an English mass at Ahmadi Church in Kuwait in honor of the Blessed Mother.

Noticed that:
1/ Indian devotees are very well-dressed when attending masses;
2/ Mostly Indian devotees sit in front unlike Pinoys who prefer the mid- to back rows.
3/ The Ahmadi Filipino priest tend to be repititious which made me drowsy. (I wonder why Catholic priests aren't charismatic in the pulpit where they have more chances of saving souls than anywhere else).
4/ The choir (composed mostly of Filipinos) sing good. (During the Tagalog mass on Fridays, there is a Filipina girl singing the Psalms.  Her voice is simply angelic!);
5/ The Ahmadi Church may look old and somber but it's also more solemn than the Kuwait City Church.